Roger Waters Releases Fifth Solo Album

Former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters is back with his fifth solo album, entitled Is This The Life We Really Want? It’s his first studio album since 1992’s Amused to Death.

As one might expect from the songwriter’s past and present stances, the album is politically-charged. Although he regularly expresses his opinions on the current administration, Is This The Life We Really Want? takes aim at the more general division of an “us versus them” mentality.

“It’s actually a poem I wrote in 2008 before that election, and it was me musing on the idea that possibly, if Obama won, things would get better,” Waters told Rolling Stone. “So that is partially what it’s about. But mainly it’s about how if we accept that there is an “us” and a “them,” we’re already embarking on a path through the woods where we’re unlikely to come out into fresh fields and daylight and sunshine and bees – not that there will be any bees if we ever come out of the woods, because we’ll have killed them all with pesticides. I like to think that people would still like to live in a world where the bees might survive, where we might address the problems of climate change, where we might understand that if we empathize with others, it makes us feel happier. Maybe we should start looking at happiness indexes rather than if we win and lose. And if we do that, then we may start to understand that the idea of ‘us’ and ‘them’ is actually an illusion.”

Waters handles vocals, acoustic guitar, and bass guitar, with additional bass laid down by Gus Seyffert. Check out the single, “Smell The Roses”: